Endless track vehicles have been used since the beginning of the 1900's, both for military and for construction activities. Endless track vehicles may have a belt in the case of light duty, but for heavy duty applications the endless tracks are made of a number of rigid units that are pivotally joined to each other in a pair of endless tracks. Drive wheels at one end of the vehicle apply force to the tracks to move the endless track vehicle over the ground. Differential speeds on the tracks provide a directional capability.
Such heavy duty endless track assemblies are subjected to substantial wear and tear going to the nature of the environment in which they operate. As a result, wear on the endless track eventually requires that the track be rebuilt and refurbished. Conventional endless track assemblies have individual track units pivoted to one another by what are known as bushings. These bushings also take the torque forces from the drive wheel and transfer them to the endless track. Such action causes a wear in the outer housing for the bushing, necessitating a rather substantial and skilled repair and, in many cases, transport of the endless track to a repair shop for replacement of worn components. A further complication of such an arrangement is that bushings which, are normally lubricated and sealed, have the seals broken when the repair and refurbishing operation occurs, thereby raising the possibility of contamination of the lubricant.
Therefore, a need exists in the art for an easily repairable endless track assembly that avoids the above problems.